Tennessee

Staffing

When the Health Commissioner mandated a six-day operating week, it took time for the laboratory to adjust to this change. One of the major impacts of expanding to weekend operations was staff attrition, which meant lost knowledge and experience in newborn screening. Tennessee has spent a lot of time retraining current staff or training new hires, taking time and resources. Although the staff was eventually able to receive a compensatory day for working on Saturdays, it may have been more beneficial to offer some sort of monetary incentive to keep employees on staff throughout the transition. A weekend bonus or flat rate
may have prevented experienced staff from leaving. As for new hires, working Saturdays was attractive as they were able to earn additional vacation time.

IT and Vendor Support

It is extremely important that NBS programs consider IT and vendor support on weekends. Tennessee does have agency IT staff on call if a server goes down on Saturday and any issues with the instrumentation currently have to wait until Monday for repair. The next vendor contract will clearly state that support should be available Monday through Saturday from 8:00 am-4:30 pm CT. This will ensure continuity of services, but the Tennessee NBS lab will need to determine if this increased cost for weekend vendor coverage is warranted.